Dvořák: Quartet in A-flat major, Op. 105

Adagio ma non troppo; Allegro appassionato
Molto vivace (7:54)
Lento e molto cantabile (14:42)
Allegro non tanto (23:20)
VERMEER QUARTET
Shmuel Ashkenasi, 1st violin
Mathias Tacke, 2nd violin
Richard Young, viola
Marc Johnson, cello

From a question and answer period at the end of a pre-concert lecture by Marc Johnson and Richard Young…

QUESTION: With works that you have played countless times over a period of many years, how do your interpretations change?

MARC: They change some, but not a great deal. What does change is the amount of freedom that we feel on stage, which allows the music to sound more intuitive, more spontaneous.

RICHARD: Menahem Pressler had a wonderful expression for the kind of music-making we try very hard to avoid: “pre-cooked.” We certainly give a great deal of attention in rehearsals to intonation, tempo, balance, and uniformity of articulation. But onstage, we never want to sound like we’re dutifully following instructions that each of us had previously penciled into his part. If you want to sound spontaneous, you have to work in a way that allows you to be spontaneous.

MARC: What each of us brings to the quartet is his own unique temperament, as well as very personal ways of coloring and pacing the music, particularly in solo passages. These individual qualities are more noticeable in Romantic or 20th century works where all four instruments are more likely to share the spotlight, unlike in a Haydn quartet where the 1st violin is featured most of the time.

RICHARD: This will probably come as a big surprise to other quartet players. But I can’t recall a single time when one of my colleagues told one of the others how he should play one of his solos, or even suggested a different fingering. That’s because we respect each other’s preferences and impulses. On the other hand, we’re never hesitant to criticize one another for things like intonation and balance. But with solos that are highly personal, we give each other an extraordinary amount of freedom.

Видео Dvořák: Quartet in A-flat major, Op. 105 канала Vermeer Quartet